Teenage Pakistani girl petitions to disown father

In a surprising twist to the cases usually seen in Pakistan, a teenage girl has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to have her father's name removed from her legal documents.

In her petition, the girl — who was not identified — requested Justice Saqib Nisar, the chief justice of Pakistan, to "please remove my father's name from my birth certificate and all of my educational degrees and other documents".

She wished "to renounce any association from the [father's] name", she told the Justice Nisar-led three-judge bench, which comprised Justices Umar Ata Bandial and Ijazul Ahsan.

"The name of the man, who does not deserve to be called a father, who does not provide for me, who I haven't even met, should not be associated with mine."

To this, the CJP told the director-general of the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) that the petitioner has a grievance with her father and directed him to present the girl's father in the court should he be able to identify him.

The agency's top official responded in affirmative, saying the NADRA would help her.

However, Justice Nisar remarked that the Supreme Court could not issue an order for the name of the girl's father to be removed from hers.

In response, the petitioner's mother asked: "Parents are allowed to and can disown their children, so why can the children not disown their parents?"

The CJP subsequently issued a notice to the girl's father and adjourned the court.